A Bartow County sanitation worker found a dismembered body part at a landfill Monday afternoon, sheriff’s officials said in a news release.

The worker found the body part while dumping a compact container at the landfill, located in the 40 block of Allatoona Dam Road near Emerson, Bartow County sheriff's Sgt. Jonathan Rogers said.

The GBI’s Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting an autopsy to determine the identification and cause of death.

Officials dumped out the trash inside the compactor and are combing through it for any evidence, Channel 2 Action News reported.

The landfill is just south of Cartersville.

No other details were released.

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Mathew Palmer, a former Delta Air Lines employee, at his home in Atlanta on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.  Palmer was fired less than two weeks after writing a post on social media about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (Natrice Miller/AJC)